Author name: Marie Bonfils

Past

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

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Dated Courtship

Although it opened on Broadway in 1987, Terence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune was originally written in 1982. The title and the date when it was written speak volumes. Surprisingly, it is incredibly dated, and although the author struggles to give it an optimistic ending, there has been too much mainstreaming of 12-step concepts in the intervening 30 plus years as well as knowledge about the characteristics of narcissism for me to overlook the potentially destructive aspects inherent in the budding relationship of a middle aged waitress and a middle-aged cook depicted in two-person play.

Past

Nightown-Sandbox Radio

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Best Live Radio in Seattle

For one night only, Seattle’s home grown radio theater, Sandbox Radio, comes to Town Hall Seattle with a brand new show. The show will include new plays, poetry and adaptations of classic literature created especially for radio, all scored with live music, featuring: Willie Weir, the Seattle Women’s Chorus, Sensible Shoes, Elizabeth Heffernon, Peggy Platt of Dos Fallopia, Wayne Rawley and of course Leslie Law and Richard Ziman. I heartily recommend Sandbox Radio to everybody, because the audience participation is part of the show, which is an awesomely joyful experience.

Nighttown. Sandbox Radio. Town Hall, 1119-8th Ave (First Hill) Seattle 98101. Oct. 5th. 8:00 pm. Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2188807, or at the door. info http://www.sandboxradio.org/sandbox_radio.html

Past

Bootycandy

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Not Exactly Louise May Alcott

Part of the Intiman Festival, Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara opened at the The Cornish Playhouse Studio, also called the Alhadeff Studio Theatre, at Seattle Center on September 17. It is a series of connected and extraneous sketches more or less about growing up black and gay in New York in the 70’s and 80’s. However, the content focused on the more sordid experiences of promiscuous gay men, rather than on gay men in that specific ethnic sub-culture.

Past

Still Life-Every Day is the Same Until it isn’t

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The Waiting Period before the Phone Call

In these days of terrorist attacks, much has been written about the terrorists themselves, the brave heroic rescuers, the victims, but little has been written about the horrible “waiting period” between the attack and THE PHONE CALL confirming the death of a loved one. Until now that is. Still Life, by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, produced by Florward Flux productions made a valiant attempt to present the angst of two relatives, a husband and his mother-in-law as they await the phone call, confirming that his wife, and her daughter have been caught up in a subway explosion in New York City.

Past

Green Whales

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Not Everything Kinky is Unhealthy

Usually when I go to see a show with a small cast, in the back room of a café, I do not expect to see such an amazingly polished script or cast, as Forward Flux Productions presented in the “auditorium” of the Kaladi Brothers Coffee Shop/Gay City bookstore in lower Capitol Hill last Friday night. Green Whales, by Lia Romeo, defied all my expectations , being a truly amazing script with superb dialogue, a coherent plot, a quirky premise and one of the quickest most engaging pieces of exposition I have ever seen. The excellent direction by Wesley Frugé, added to the delight.

Past

Emboldened/Unsung Jazz Heros

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Theater-off-Jackson hosted an evening dedicated to early Jazz musicians; some local to Seattle, and some making history in New Orleans. The first show, upstairs in an art gallery/cabaret was a “Live Installation”, Unsung Heroes of Seattle Jazz, produced by Freehold Theatre in partnership with the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas and the Mahgany Project, the second was Emboldened, the Rise and Fall of King Bolden the First, an original script by one of Seattle’s most distinguished actors, Reginald André Jackson. King Bolden was actually Charles Buddy Bolden, a Cornetist, often credited with improvising Ragtime to create what came to be known as Jazz in New Orleans.

Uncategorized

Sidewinders

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Cheap Tricks

Fantastic Z Theatre Company, a self-described artist-run LBGTQ theatre, opened Sidewinders, the Northwest premiere of an “existential transgender wild western” by award winning playwright Basil Kreimendahl at Richard Hugo House on Thursday, July 16.

Past

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

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Teenagers playing Teenagers in Romeo and Juliet

Seattle’s Young Shakespeare Workshop presented Romeo and Juliet at the Seattle Outdoor Theatre Festival in Volunteer Park at something called the Conservatory Lawn, but is really a natural stage made by the low-lying branches of a Cedar tree. The length of the play illustrated an important principle about outdoor theatre: Never go over two hours and preferably get it down to 60 minutes.

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